Cyber, Sovereignty and Human Rights

Amid global competition to define the rules and standards around digital innovation, policymakers in the US, EU and UK will need to cooperate in promoting governance models rooted in support for democratic values and a free and open internet.

Social media giants are increasingly clashing with Asian governments over free expression and censorship as the region lurches towards digital authoritarianism.

China’s highly restrictive approach to online freedom of expression has not only intensified under COVID-19, the government is also increasingly trying to shape global online technology governance.

The response of digital platforms to the US Capitol riots raises questions about online content governance. The EU and UK are starting to come up with answers.

The long-enshrined rights to freedom of thought and opinion should be protected in the design, use and regulation of technology and artificial intelligence.

COVID-19 demonstrates the potential power of tech companies as a force for good, but also that they have largely devised their own rules in vacuums of both standards and accountability. A new digital deal is both essential and inevitable.

Contact tracing apps highlight the importance of combining both technical privacy fixes and a grounding in the international human rights framework.

A new Chatham House paper examines the prospects of countries reaching agreement on issues of sovereignty and non-intervention in cyberspace in the face of persistent, low-level, state-to-state cyber attacks.

This paper analyses the application of the sovereignty and non-intervention principles in relation to states’ cyber operations in another state.

Although some digital platforms now have an impact on more people’s lives than does any one state authority, the international community has been slow to hold to account these platforms’ activities by reference to human rights law.